ESP32 Forum

Previously, one of the biggest downsides of using the SIP packages like the ESP32-S3-PICO-1 was there was no land pattern specified for the LGA footprint, so I had to come up with it myself. Same goes for the stencil openings, which resulted in a few bridged pads until I shrunk the paste openings smaller than the pads.

With the newer ESP32-PICO-V3 chips (including the V3, the V3-02, and the D4), both land pattern and stencil pattern are included in the datasheet (link to datasheet: https://www.espressif.com/sites/default ... eet_en.pdf), page 39 and 40.
My question is regarding the odd paste pattern on page 40. It shows the width of the paste opening matching the pad, which is standard, but the paste opening stretches outside of the pad all the way around the chip by about 0.5mm. This feels like it will be way too much paste, and especially with the big centre exposed pad, the chip will be floating off the board or pads will be bridged.

What is the purpose of these large paste apertures, and is there an issue with me shrinking them down to the standard pad size?

You could shrink paste size to pad size.

Yes of course, but that was not my question. I was wondering what the purpose was and why this land pattern is given in the datasheet, as opposed to a more standard stencil.

I manufactured boards with this land pattern and stencil layout with no problems, although who knows if the CAM engineer adjusted the gerbers for me. I would probably still recommend shrinking the stencil openings if hand assembling.